Two dancing karako, from the series "Happiness and Long Life for the Mimasu Group (Mimasu fukurokuju)"

Totoya Hokkei's surimono Two Dancing Karako, from the series Happiness and Long Life for the Mimasu Group (Mimasu fukurokuju), shows two Chinese-style children, karako, mid-dance, their robes and gestures emphasizing youth, festive spirit, and auspicious good fortune. Karako figures were a long-standing motif in Japanese painting and decorative arts, often associated with prosperity and the wish for many children, and they were a natural choice for a kyōka group whose series title explicitly invoked happiness and long life — Fukurokuju being one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune. The "Mimasu" in the series name refers to the kyōka circle and may also allude to the Mimasu crest of the Ichikawa kabuki house, weaving a layered reference network that Edo kyoka-e audiences enjoyed unpicking. Hokkei, a senior Hokusai school designer of surimono, handles the karako with the lively but disciplined line that was his hallmark, and the surimono format adds embossing, metallic accents, and refined color. The Art Institute of Chicago holds the impression within its strong group of Hokkei series prints, where the Mimasu fukurokuju set stands out as a particularly coherent example of how single kyōka groups commissioned thematically integrated runs of surimono from the leading designers of the day. Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.